The present invention relates to a winch which may be employed, for example, as a towing winch or a logging winch and more particularly to such a winch employing one or more clutches and a normally engaged brake to provide various operation functions in the winch, the winch being further adapted to permit free-wheeling of the winch drum.
Winches of the type contemplated by the present invention normally include a substantial number of rotating components to provide various desired operating functions as well as to insure against undesired rotation of the winch drum. For example, it is normally desirable to rotate the winch drum through clutch means for take-up of a line or cable which is trained about the winch drum. However, it is also necessary to enable an operator to secure the drum against rotation even while it is supporting a load upon the line. It is further desirable to prevent unwinding of the line or cable from the drum in the event that power from a driving engine should be interrupted for example.
The present invention also contemplates a problem arising particularly when such winches are employed for towing or logging operations for example. In such applications, it is often necessary to unreel or unwind the cable from the winch drum in order to secure it to logs, vehicles or other objects which are to be towed by a vehicle upon which the winch is mounted. Because of the numerous components included in such conventional winches, it tends to be difficult to manually unwind the cable due to excessive drag caused by the internal winch components.